Re: [Harp-L] Improv revisited



----- Original Message ----- From: "Bill Hines" <billhines4@xxxxxxxxxxx>


Maybe some of you wizards out there can help to define milestones of
learning harp, particularly in the blues genre, once one has learned the
basics (clear single notes with good tone, all bends nailed
consistently, etc), to get from intermediate to advanced level.


I think there's a massive gap between intermediate and advanced, much more so than the gap between beginner and intermediate. In the early days, good things always seem to be happening. Not so as you start getting decent, big, big plateaus happen .That's one of the reasons you
see so many guys that are Just OK after 5 + years. People don't push
through the plateaus because it's hard and frustrating. To go beyond decent, you have to keep pressing, and you have to enjoy the practice
side of it all as well.


I remember a discussion on this list back in 2002 talking about the
hours needed on the instrument to become an advanced player. I charted the numbers and decided I'd do it in half the the time. I was practicing 5 and 6 hours a day. It didn't work. I got better, but I definitely wasn't an advanced player at the end of it all. Last year
I read a quote from Johnny Winter on the subject....


" The general attitude is, I want it and I want it now. But it takes years if you're going to do it right, and a lot of people just don't take the time. It doesn't make any difference how technically good you are or how fast you are, or how many notes you know; you just can't do it in two years".

So true.

I think the epitome of an advanced player is someone who can settle in with any group of musicians and make quality music. I was in restaurant/bar 2 years ago with Dennis Cooper. There was a trio playing a Latin jazz kind of thing. Dennis somehow wound up on stage with these guys and just played away on material that went way beyond the typical I IV V blues stuff I was used to. After that night I
new what I needed to shoot for.A while later I read a post here about an American harp-l guy traveling in Spain. He went into a bar and ran into Damien Masterson jamming away with a group of Spanish musicians. I remember thinking, damn, that's where I want to be.


I think advanced toungue blocking, speed, overblows, etc.. could all be considered milestones, but I know harp players who are fast,
who tongue block, and who can play overblows, that I would not consider advanced players.


To me it all boils down to,...... Can You Play The Music.

Mark






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